1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to an application unit monitoring device which can monitor a user""s usage of a target application of an application unit, and which can easily and efficiently communicate data of the monitored usage.
2. Discussion of the Background
With the rise of computer usage, software development has clearly become a significant business. In evaluating software, it may be beneficial to monitor exactly how a user utilizes a software application. As an example, it may be helpful for a software developer to know which commands a user uses most often.
Further, in designing devices with which a human interacts, it may be desirable to monitor how the user interacts with such a device. As an example, it may be desirable to monitor how a user utilizes a control panel of an image forming device such as a copying machine, facsimile machine, printer, scanner, an appliance such as a microwave oven, VCR, digital camera, cellular phone, palm top computer, etc.
Further, more and more users are utilizing the Internet. There is significant interest in how users use the Internet, particularly with respect to how users may use certain web pages etc. Monitoring a user""s usage of the Internet thereof may also become significant.
In these instances when it is desired to determine how a user is utilizing a certain application, for example a software application, a device with an interface to be operated by a user, a web page, etc., not only must the user""s usage of the application unit be monitored, but the information obtained by monitoring the user""s usage must be effectively communicated to a desired party.
One object of the present invention is to provide a novel and effective system for monitoring a user""s usage of a target application of an application unit.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a novel system for communicating data obtained by monitoring a user""s usage of a target application of an application unit to a desired party.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an efficient communication of the monitored usage information from a monitoring unit to a sending unit.
The present invention achieves these and other objects by monitoring the usage of a user interface of a target application of an application unit. Such a monitoring can, as one example, monitor a software program being executed on a computer or workstation under control by a user, usage of a control panel of an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, printer, facsimile, scanner, an appliance such as a microwave oven, VCR, digital camera, cellular phone, palm top computer, etc., or any other device or system which has a user interface. The data obtained by monitoring a user""s usage of a target application of an application unit can, as a further feature in the present invention, be collected and logged and then communicated to a desired location by Internet email. The use of email communication reduces the costs associated with communicating such data. The data can be communicated to the desired location at several instances, including each time a user exits a target application of an application unit, or after a predetermined number of times that a user has utilized and exited the target application of the application unit.